Ilara Health Operating System

Digitizing primary healthcare ecosystems for areas with low internet connectivity and electricity.

Past and Current Partners

Making More Health Accelerator (Boehringer Ingelheim & Ashoka), SOLVE MIT, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Intel, Gates Foundation Villgro Accelerator, Google for Startups (Africa), Mentoring IBM, Creative Destruction Lab

Active Countries
Kenya,
Thematic area(s)
Health
Technology
SaaS, Whitelabel
Organisation Name
Ilara Health
READ MORE ON THEIR WEBSITE

The Problem

Traditionally, peri-urban health care facilities in Kenya have been unable to take advantage of leaps in medical technologies due to a lack of cash flow. These facilities have been restricted to an analog environment that does not meet clinical or patient needs.

The Solution

Ilara Health focuses on digitizing the sub-Saharan primary healthcare ecosystem by deploying a digital operating system that enables clinic operations management, remote patient monitoring, clinical encounter documentation as well as the training of medical staff while being digitally connected to a suite of diagnostic devices enabling the automatic transfer of test results into its system.

How it works?

  • Step 1: Partnering with diagnostic manufacturers to bring approved devices (FDA and CE approval).These devices are integrated into the Operating System
  • Step 2: The sales team engages with primary health care facilities; selling door-to-door, and following up on leads generated through the website and telesales
  • Step 3: Defining leasing agreements with the primary healthcare facilities and deploying the Operating System and tech-enabled diagnostic tools
  • Step 4: Training clinical staff in the use of the digital health platform (medical records, diagnostics) and launching health awareness campaigns to drive demand locally for the new services
  • Step 5: Patients attending the clinic are able to access diagnostic tests, and records are stored digitally
  • Step 6: Facilities pay a monthly fee to use the Operating System. Clinics have the option to acquire diagnostic devices at the end of the lease agreement with an additional monthly payment
  • Step 7: Harnessing the patient data from the Operating System to inform the development of new services and pilots to better support clinics in the network either in direct patient management or in the running of their operations
Digital X Solution Ilara Health Operating System

Bridging the digital divide

The tech-enabled tools deployed do not rely on main power infrastructures and the system does not require constant internet access. Acknowledging the lower level of digital literacy in these areas, Ilara's team is dedicated to offering comprehensive training to staff in the use of the platform and tech-enabled diagnostics.

Impact and highlights

  • Equipped 1,163 primary healthcare facilities in Kenya with access to digital health tools and/ or tech-enabled diagnostics.
  • This has resulted in the delivery of over 50,000 tests and over 25,000 patients screened (of which roughly 60% are women).

Plans for expansion

Planning to enter African markets in Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia.

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